This year’s Ramapo Central School Board budget process has ended. The Board of Education voted Thursday, April 24, to adopt the proposed 2014-2015 budget, which totals $130,372,327 and represents a 1.85% budget-to-budget increase from the 2013-14 school year. The tax levy levy increase will tick in at 0.82%.
Chronic underfunding by New York State, mostly due to the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) law, has forced the Ramapo Central to spend down its savings, resulting in a “planned deficit.”
The next step is a district school budget vote, scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, which also includes the election of three board members. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.
BOE President Craig Long and the board’s two newest members – Marlyse Haward and Nicola Milillo – are all up for election. Haward and Milillo were appointed this year to seats that became open due to board member departures.
Joseph Gravagna and Amany Messieha Dgheim are also running for one of the three available seats.
While last year’s budget process was well attended by passionate and vocal teachers and parents, especially as the reality of the proposed cuts sunk in, this year’s process had a much more managed approach by Dr. Douglas Adams and his administrative team. Early in the process Dr. Adams addressed an audience at a Sloatsburg Elementary School BOE meeting, saying that the 2014-15 budget would have no recommended program or personnel cuts for the 2014-15 school year.
Throughout the process, the Ramapo Central BOE has met regularly at various schools in the district. Tuesday, April 29, the Board of Education meets at Suffern Middle School at 7:30 p.m. There will be a tenure recognition reception for teachers and other district staff at 6:30 p.m.
Ramapo Central faces a projected budget deficit next ear of nearly $2 million dollars, mostly due to the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) law. Through the GAP, NY state deducts money from local school districts to help fill its own revenue shortfalls. Each year, school districts make budgets that include promised state aid which is then either cut or is not delivered, forcing districts to spend down savings or cut programs and personnel — something Ramapo Central did last year.
Ramapo Central’s cumulative loss in state aid due to the GEA has been $12.5 million since 2010-11. Chronic underfunding by the State has forced the District to spend down its savings, resulting in a “planned deficit” for each subsequent fiscal year. To cover the state aid shortfall due to GEA for 2014-15, Ramapo Central has proposed the use of unrestricted tax certiorari reserve funds in the amount of $780,290 and the allocation of $1,000,000 from the liquidation of encumbered purchase orders for tax certiorari, in accordance with the District’s Corrective Action Plan in response to the New York State Comptroller’s Audit Report.
The school budget vote will held on Tuesday, May 20. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. For voting information, please call (845) 357-7783 x11234.
